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Tom Wiens to forego assemblies, will try to petition on to ballot

3/26/2010

Senate hopeful Tom Wiens, a former state senator from Douglas County, will forego the caucus-assembly route for ballot access in the U.S. Senate race, and will instead try to get on the primary ballot through the alternative petition path.

Tom Wiens

In making his announcement, Wiens, who managed to get more than 16 percent of the straw vote among Republican caucus attendees last week, called for “a revolution in the Republican Party.”

Wiens promised to bring new life to the Republican Party by engaging and including all conservatives and every Republican in the effort to choose their nominee. Jane Norton and Ken Buck are the other two major Republican candidates in the race.

“No one in this race has more respect for the nomination process than I do,” said Wiens. “I have secured the Republican nomination four separate times, for four separate offices, by the assembly process, including being the GOP nominee for Colorado’s State Treasurer at age 26.”

Brandon Moody, Wiens’ campaign manager said this decision isn’t about snubbing the Republican Party or the state assembly process.

“There’s a disconnect somewhere,” said Moody. “On the one hand we’re seeing unprecedented enthusiasm amongst conservatives statewide, yet on the other we see disappointing overall turnout at caucuses this year. Voters are excited but not involved.”

That disconnect is precisely why, Moody says, the Wiens campaign intends to engage all Republicans in the process, not just “3,500 select Party elites.”

“This primary isn’t about who gets to go to Washington and sit in a fancy chair. It’s about what kind of Republican Party we want going forward,” added Wiens. “We need a revolution in the Republican Party. We need to engage and include all conservatives and every Republican in the process to choose our nominee. Will we be a party of conservative ideals; or will we be a party which caters only to the ambitions of establishment insiders?

“It’s clear that in this debate, we are going to have to speak directly to rank-and-file members of the GOP,” Wiens continued. “For too many election cycles, the same tired leadership has led us to the same disappointing results by trotting out the next Republican insider standing in line. This year we need to nominate a conservative, not an insider if we want to win.”